The present invention relates generally to transport carts used to move objects, such as manually pushed rolling carts and powered carts. More particularly, the present invention relates to improvements in such carts that allows a load carrier portion of the cart to be tilted.
The use of carts for transporting materials is well known. There have been various constructions devised for transporting materials on wheeled carts, and for providing a way to change the orientation of the materials being transported, either between pick-up and transport of the materials, or during transport.
For example, published U.S. Patent Application 2003/0127834 discloses a drywall cart that includes a wheeled cart frame and a drywall tubing frame that is attached to the cart frame via a ball joint so that it swivels or rotates about a number of axes. A crank mechanism is provided to raise or lower the drywall tubing frame relative to the cart frame, but the user must manually swivel the drywall tubing frame relative to the cart frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,348 discloses a carriage with a wheeled base and an articulated frame for supporting a construction panel in a multitude of operator defined orientations during transportation, fitting and installation of the panel.
Other carts and hand trucks, and similar constructions are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,540,753, 3,191,786, 1,636,043, 1,577,954, 1,425,999, 708,346, 322,499, and 236,683.
Despite the teachings in these various patents, there is a need for an improved transport cart that permits a load to be carried on the cart and rotated between a horizontal position and an angled position to accommodate differences in the area through which the load is being transported. The change in orientation of the load needs to be easily accomplished by the user, with safeguards to prevent unwanted movement of the load, or movement beyond a desired position. The cart should also accommodate different numbers and sizes of the items making up the load to be transported.